The present invention relates to a storage device having a plurality of shelves, which is easily installable in a conventional closet, is portable and thus easily removable and relocatable, and is extremely simple and economical in construction.
When additional storage shelves are required in a housing unit, such shelves are usually in the form of permanent structures, fixedly secured to a closet wall. Such permanent structures are costly to install and, more importantly, become appurtenant to the walls so that once they are installed, they cannot be removed or relocated without being totally dismantled, and cannot be reused at another location without proceeding with a new installation.
In accordance with the invention there is provided a storage device having a plurality of shelves which is adapted to be removably supported on a wall mount easily and conveniently secured to the inner wall of a closet. In my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,156 there is disclosed such wall mount adapted to pivotally support the rear ends of a plurality of lateral rods, the front free ends of which are adapted to receive and support conventional hangers. In a similar way, in accordance with the invention, the wall mount is adapted to receive the ends of at least two horizontally spaced longitudinally extending rods, which rods support the storage device. The storage device proper consists of a housing, preferably made of canvas, having a top wall, a pair of side walls, a bottom wall, and a plurality of shelves in parallel spaced relation with said top and bottom walls. At the juncture of the top wall and each side wall there is provided an appropriate passageway for receiving one of the support rods, the rear end of which terminates in a downturned portion insertable into one of the apertures on the wall mount. The front end of each support rod terminates in a hook shaped formation whereby said front ends can be interconnected by a cross member also provides at its ends with complementary hook shaped formations, for maintaining the two support rods in fixed parallel spaced relation.
In accordance with the above arrangement the storage device can easily be suspended in position in the closet merely by inserting the two support rods into the passageways at the junctures of the top and side walls, placing the downturned rear ends of the support rods in complementary apertures on the wall mount, and interconnecting the front ends of the support rod by a cross member. This will support the storage unit from its top wall permitting the entire housing to be gravitationally suspended with the shelves and the bottom wall being disposed in horizontal planes and with the side walls being disposed in substantially vertical planes whereby the shelves, including the bottom wall, are in condition to be used.
In order to rigidify the storage unit, especially when it is made of canvas, each shelf is preferably provided with a masonite stiffening board. For such purpose the frontmost edge of each shelf is provided with a lip to define a pocket for receiving the front end of the masonite stiffening board and thus to fix the same in position on the shelf and prevent it from inadvertently sliding off.
In accordance with another feature of the invention the masonite stiffening boards project rearwardly of the storage unit a sufficient distance so that when the unit is suspended as aforedescribed, the rear edges of the stiffening boards engage the closet wall, each arrangement providing added support for the storage unit, with the stiffening boards being dimensioned so that such engagement causes the entire storage unit to be suspended in straight fashion.